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India-EU summit: Singh and Blair call for better management in a globalised economy
New Delhi: Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Tony Blair have spoken about the need to accept globalisation and to manage its ramifications for the betterment of the people.

Addressing the Sixth India-EU Business Summit in the capital today, prime minister Manmohan Singh asked the business community not to be fearful of change, while the UK prime minister Tony Blair stated categorically that, ''Globalisation is not a matter of debate'' but was ''a reality'' and emphasised that despite the problems individual economies face, there was a need to ''embrace and manage it''.

After having signed a wide-ranging Joint Action Plan (JAP) earlier in the day on the economic ties between the two sides, Singh described that India-EU relationship had to be a ''win-win'' relationship. In fact, he urged the EU to re-look their non-tariff barriers for goods from India.

Singh said, "Our business community tells that EU markets have suddenly become difficult to access. While tariffs have come down, various non-tariffs barriers have come up. We need to address any such issue urgently.''

Earlier, Blair reassured businessmen on the fears of a backlash on outsourcing by stating that, ''outsourcing, in fact, helped in boosting the profits of local business houses.'' According to Blair, the future of the Europe rests on knowledge-based sectors and the two sides could move up the value chain through investments in science and technology. This is where he defined a new paradigm for the two sides and said, ''India and EU must also work together in developing human capital.''
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Mandelson: EU will examine India's complaints against trade barriers
New Delhi: The European Union has said that it was willing to examine some "unwanted" barriers to trade after India raised the issue of non-tariff barriers to some of its exports including ayurveda products.

"We take Indian concerns regarding market access very seriously. If there are any unwanted barriers we are examining it. If we can't justify them, we will take action," said Peter Mandelson, EU Trade Commissioner. Mandelson said he was not aware of general problems of market access but if there were specific issues the European Union would look into it.

At the same time, the EU wanted India to provide greater market access to its wine and spirits and lift the ban on its poultry products. India has very high import duty on wine and spirits and the EU's Trade Commissioner has threatened to take up the matter with the WTO. Mandelson's observations came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hit out at the EU for making its market increasingly difficult to penetrate for Indian exports.

Singh cited non-tariff barriers on export of Indian ayurveda products to EU and wanted this European Commission directive to be looked into.
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